By Dr Wasim Ahmad,
For a Muslim who wants Paradise it should be a lot easier to give Here to get in the Hereafter. Focusing more on seeking and less on giving is a mind-set that has been created and nurtured over a long period of time by the leaders. They have drilled this psychology among Muslims to the deepest levels. I often think that if the leaders point out shortcomings in their people then those people will never clap for them. Please recall the occasions when the entire gathering burst into clapping. Most likely it was an occasion when the speaker played with the emotions of people.
The job of Muslims is tougher. We have to educate the educated first. Our educated are not truly educated. Their mind-set is not much different from the mid-set of the uneducated. If our “educated” get truly educated then it will have an impact on the masses. Then instead of waiting for leaders all of them will become leaders and will try to change the situation. They all will say good-bye to the luxury of excuses for non-performance. Our instant offering of excuses amounts to saying, “We would have performed if the environment was ideal and the situations were favourable”. It amounts to saying, “We would have offered water if you weren’t thirsty”. It defies logic. It defies reason.
When we say that “the condition of Indian Muslims would only be good if there would be reservation for them” we mean that in the absence of desired reservations for Muslims there is every reason for their bad condition. I am sure we will come up with some other excuses as soon as we get reservations and many more such affirmative actions. I wonder when someone advises that “make the atmosphere in such a way that the whole Muslim population of our country unites for this noble cause (of securing reservations)” is it really noble? What would have been noble is to unite for giving and not for demanding. What would have been noble is to pass some resolutions for duties as we do a lot for the rights. We have changed the meaning of words. Instead of changing ourselves.
Once I asked my colleagues to take to the path of research and immediately I heard that there were fewer resources and the facilities were inadequate. When I looked I found that everyone in front of me had at least one head on his shoulders. I wondered which other resources and facilities we needed. Less than ideal and unfavourable governments is a beautiful excuse that I come across every now and then. We love this luxury and savor this delicacy to the maximum. We want to change the governments before we take the first step towards changing ourselves. When I look at our expertise in manufacturing excuses and I contrast it with the outlook of the Benefactor of Humanity (pbuh) I tend to think that he shouldn’t have done anything. Because he had more excuses than we do.
India will be a more diverse society when we will not have exclusive educational institutions. Because then we will learn to accept the differences and will celebrate this variety more as we will be cohabiting with each other at a much maturer and dignified level. The exclusive educational institutions give an impression of a threat perception. This is an inherently negative trait. The very foundation of such institutions is on a mistaken notion. The exclusivism of one community causes more and more exclusivism in another community as a natural reaction. The exclusive educational institutions are a hindrance in the idea of India and may be against the very idea of diversity which we want to maintain by perpetuating these institutions.
What is meant by the “change in outlook”, I have tried to address earlier (http://www.twocircles.net/2010jul26/abolishing_our_existing_thought_patterns.html). What we need to do to make India a better place is to first make ourselves better persons. If we are able to do that then we will find that India has already become a better place. We don’t need to “convince the RSS minded people who are in power and are trying to bully us and our children every day and not allowing even to have peace of mind to think something positive” for anything. We only need to convince ourselves for all the good things that we currently want from others. Before we ask the RSS to “stop bullying our children everyday” WE ourselves have to stop bullying our own children – with our false notions, emotionalism, communalism, communitarianism and negativity.
In the same environment wherein we and our children do not have “peace of mind to think something positive” we are easily communicating with each other utilizing the most modern technology. Very often I have found that we ourselves are an answer to many of our questions. And very often I think that we ourselves are the field of action. Though we think that the field of action is somewhere farther away. Our children will never think positively if we do not think positively. I often recall the words of a writer: “na’ee nasl kay sudharnay ki ek hi soorat hai. Aur woh yeh ke puraani nasl sudhar jaa’ay”.
We don’t have to “combat this situation in the light of modern action”. We only have to relax. And do the toughest job on earth – change our thinking before we change the thinking of the RSS or the BJP or of anyone else. If we do that then we have already taken the first step towards the idea of India. The greatest challenge to the idea of India is that almost as a natural reflex we think that the problem lies somewhere else. It lies nowhere. It lies within. It is in each one of such. We are India and her idea. If we are ready to part with our preconceived notions and a lot of negative traits that we have grown up with then the idea of India has already taken a concrete shape.
The observation that “Allah (s.w.t.) has given Qur’an and Sunnah to Indian Muslims to give it to those unfortunate non-Muslims, but instead these people are hiding true Islamic teachings just to coexist peacefully with all un-Islamic evil ideologies and enjoy some worldly benefits” is a food for thought. Except the fact that this food has been cooked in a hurry. We have to rethink about what is hiding and what is giving. This version of Islam which is arrived at in haste is a sure recipe for disaster. This version of Islam divides the humanity in thousand and one categories and considers a huge number of the children of Adam as infidels without doing any of those things which the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did in Makkah. This version of Islam gives a confirmed ticket to a private Jannah and its followers get a walk-over. This version of Islam presupposes that there is less space in Paradise. There could be less room in our minds, in fact. We need to minimize quoting from Qur’an and Hadeeth for a while. For a while let us focus on the whole spirit of Qur’an and Islam. This is the collective spirit that we have kept in hiding – from everyone including ourselves.
Let us not ignore the fact that the humanity has come a long way. Now it is quite possible for the people of various cultures and faiths to sit together and discuss ideas openly. These facilities, openness and tolerance, and tools of communication were not available earlier. We should be thankful for the increased avenues of engagement and interaction. It is not the time to fire dogmatic missiles which cause a lot of civilian casualties. This is the time for informed discussion and dialogue. It is not the time for debates either. It is not the time to defeat someone. It is the time to win the people over. Yes, it is harder. But precisely for the same reason it is more desirable.
A respectable gentleman writes, “we Muslims can talk much”. In fact, we don’t talk much. I wish we did. I wish we did it openly and with clarity. We have a habit of remaining away from the crux of it – almost always. We use a lot of words with few meanings. No matter how much we “talk” we don’t actually talk as we fail to address the core issues. This is why the numberless articles and countless books and speeches haven’t and aren’t taking us anywhere. It only indicates that the real communication is missing. To make things worse, speed is more important for us than the direction.
But if we have an idea of India and are aware of the challenges, too, then certainly we can move forward. No obstacles are insurmountable. The human beings have proved it over the ages. Whenever we have very deeply realized our limitations we have overcome them. We are capable of translating the dream of India into a reality. It is an exciting journey of hope.
(The writer is Dept Head of Islamic Studies, Preston University, Ajman, UAE)